


slow down, you crazy child

by hailingstars



Series: toil and trouble [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Halloween Costumes, Parent Tony Stark, Peter wearing tony's clothes, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, halloween drabble, just go with it, lmao sappy as hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 01:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20940002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hailingstars/pseuds/hailingstars
Summary: “How do I look?” asked Peter, turning around.Tony was too lost in the mental image of himself signing adoption papers to respond.“Mr. Stark?” Peter shifted around in the suit jacket. “It’s a little bit too big…”“You’re gonna grow into it,” said Tony, coming back to reality. He walked across the room and pulled Peter into a hug. “Just not so fast.”ORPeter dresses like Tony Stark for Halloween and Tony has Feelings about it while worrying his kid is working too hard.written for 13 days of halloween #18 : halloween party (kind of lmao)





	slow down, you crazy child

**Author's Note:**

> so I watched the politician recently and this fic has nothing to do with that except ben platt sings Vienna at the end I've listened to that songs so many times that it was sort of inevitable I wrote a fic with similar themes
> 
> also this is my first halloween fic for this series (there's going to be 13) and I know it's not that halloween - ish but the next one includes a clown and some bug spray, so there's that

“In a minute!”

Tony’s eyebrows furrowed, and his fist hung in midair, knuckles still gazing Peter’s closed bedroom door. He frowned. He knocked a second time, louder, and when there was no response, his hand flew down to the doorknob.

“I’m coming in,” said Tony, as he opened the door, and revealed the scariest sight he’d seen that October.

It was Peter Parker.

His eyes were sunken in, with dark purple circles under them, as he stared into the computer screen. He didn’t bother looking away to greet Tony, or to complain, as he normally did, when Tony barged into his room with little notice.

Papers were scattered all around his desk. Papers were scattered all over the floor, and on his bed, as well as opened several opened textbooks, and maybe, the most horrific thing of all, opened bottles of chemicals Tony instantly recognized as the ones Peter used to manufacture his webs.

“What the hell are these doing in here?” asked Tony, as he kicked his way through wadded up pieces of notebook paper and made his way over to the chemicals. He searched through the mess and found the caps, then screwed them back on. After he was finished, he looked back over at Peter, who still had his face in the computer screen, and who had yet to acknowledge Tony’s presence in his bedroom.

Tony frowned again. He took a piece of paper from, stopped a minute to admire a half formed sketched idea for a spidey suit, then threw it at the back of Peter’s head.

“Earth to Parker,” yelled Tony, just as the wad of paper bounced off Pete’s head.

“Hey Mr. Stark,” said Peter, in a drone voice. He still didn’t look away from his computer.

Tony marched over to Peter and kicked the back of his chair, causing the boy to jump and spin it around with his foot. Peter glared at him.

“Mr. Stark,” he said. “Why?”

“I dunno,” said Tony. “You tell me. Why is this shit in your room?”

Peter’s eyes went wide with realization. “Oh, god, Mr. Stark. I’m sorry. I – I must have forgot to put them back down in the lab. Normally I put them back – I swear.”

“So sneaking dangerous chemicals out of my lab and leaving them laying around your bedroom is something you normally do?”

“What? No.”

“That’s what you just said.”

“No it isn’t,” said Peter, blinking. It was one of his tells. For a vigilant, he was a lousy liar. “Did you need something, Mr. Stark?”

“Yes, you in your Halloween costume,” Tony told him. “It’s time to go. Morgan’s dressed and ready, and if we don’t leave soon, she’s going to eat all the candy we bought for the trick or treaters tomorrow.”

“Oh.” Was all Peter said. Just a single word, but it was packed with so much meaning.

Tony had given enough of those same exact ohs in the past. Enough to know what it meant. It was easy to tell, looking around Peter’s bedroom, and looking into his tired eyes. 

“You’re not coming.”

“I just, I have too much work to do.” 

“Kid, it’s a holiday.”

“I don’t have time for holidays,” said Peter. His voice cracked in frustration and broke Tony’s heart. “Look I have an essay for my MIT application and two exams next week I need to cram for _and_ I have to finalize the new design for an upgraded suit –“

He was about to keep going with his to-do list, had his mouth hanging wide open, but was cut out by a high-pitched siren and blinking red lights that displayed a digital spidey head on the ceiling.

Peter dropped his head, and let out a defeated sigh, before slowly standing up from his desk chair. “I gotta go.”

“Uh, why?”

“The spidey signal,” said Peter, as if Tony should automatically know what means.

“The what?”

“It’s connected to the emergency dispatch system,” he explained. “It notifies me when there’s a threat.”

“I see,” said Tony. Half of him was impressed. Peter was capable and he had a good heart, too good. That was the other half of him. The half that just wanted Peter to a normal child and have fun and let the world look after itself. “And what exactly are the determining factors for a Spider-Man worthy threat?”

Peter shrugged. “Once it had KAREN send me to rescue a cat from a tree.”

Tony was caught between amusement and adoration and a sort of melancholy dread. Like seeing a train and knowing the tracks ahead were faulty and that the mess to come was unavoidable. He looked around Peter’s bedroom a second time and saw himself years ago, alone in his workshop, manically trying build a solution to his anxiety. To fix it on his own.

He couldn’t save himself back then. That had been Pepper’s and Rhodey’s and Happy’s job. Just like helping and occasionally saving Peter was his job. Just like now.

“Alright, it’s time for a break, kiddo,” said Tony. “You’re gonna ignore the spidey signal and come to the party with us. You know Morgan will be disappointed if you don’t.”

“Mr. Stark I can’t –“

“Nope, enough of that. You can and you will, because I’m insisting.”

Peter’s eyes went back and forth between the projection on the ceiling and Tony, until he finally relented and gave a second sigh of defeat and, dare Tony even think it, relief.

“I don’t even have a costume.”

“Be creative,” said Tony, turning around and wading across the mess. “I’m sure you can find something in this disaster zone.” He paused, with his hand on the doorframe. “We’re leaving in ten.”

Tony heard muffled complaints about not having enough time, but he zipped out into the hallway so fast they were easy to ignore. He took the elevator down to his lab, put the stolen chemicals back where they belonged, then went back up to wait in the foyer with Pepper and Morgan, who was dressed like Spider-Man.

Ten minutes turned into fifteen, and there was still no sign of Peter in the foyer.

Tony marched back down the hall, towards his room, and when he found it empty, asked Friday, who directed him to his and Pepper’s bedroom.

He found Peter standing in front of the full-length mirror, straightening out the black suit jacket he wore over some, nerdy science t-shirt. He had a pair of glasses that were a bit too big, because, Tony realized, they were not his glasses, but Tony’s.

“How do I look?” asked Peter, turning around.

Tony was too lost in the mental image of himself signing adoption papers to respond.

“Mr. Stark?” Peter shifted around in the suit jacket. “It’s a little bit too big…”

“You’re gonna grow into it,” said Tony, coming back to reality. He walked across the room and pulled Peter into a hug. “Just not so fast.”

Tony let go of him, and looked him up and down, and wondered what it would take to convince May to let him adopt one spider-boy.

“So, dressing up like me was the best you could come up with?”

“It was the _only _thing I could come up with,” said Peter, his voice evening out. “Besides, I was Iron Man the last year I went trick or treating, so this was the next step.” Peter paused, a solemn expression crossing his face. “You know, Mr. Stark, I’ve always wanted to be like you. That’s why I have to work so hard.”

“Pete,” said Tony. He didn’t know it was possible to feel such conflicting emotions. That was soaring with pride and warmth, but also feeling his heart go into a million different pieces. “You don’t have to work hard. You’re already so much better than I ever was, and you’ll be five times that once you learn to rest.”

Peter frowned and looked like he was at least trying to understand. For a few short seconds, Tony thought maybe Peter might try to argue, to actually make a case against taking a few days off every once in a while, but the seconds passed by and he didn’t say anything. Just nodded his head.

“Party time?”

“Yeah, definitely,” said Peter, with a smile, as Tony slung an arm around his shoulder and directed him out the bedroom and into the hallway. “Who are you supposed to be, anyway?”

“Great minds think alike, Pete. I’m also going as Tony Stark.” 

Peter busted out laughing. “You can’t go as yourself on Halloween.”

“Sure I can,” said Tony. “I’m a celebrity and the savior of the universe. Who wouldn’t want to be me?”

Peter continued to laugh, and Tony continued to worship that laugh, even if the dark circles were still present under his kid’s eyes. He’d deal with that later. He’d make sure Pete slowed down. He’d make sure Pete got a goodnight’s sleep when they got home.

He’d make sure they got some vacation time, at the lake, where Peter couldn’t be bothered by the spidey signal.

Scratch that. Tony would hack into the spidey signal, and program correctly, to only alert Peter when there were serious threats.

At that very second, though, Tony had better things to do. Like harass May Parker until she texted him photos of Peter that Halloween he had dressed up as Iron Man. Like a Halloween party with his children and his wife.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading im posting the next one eventually idk hopefully some time at the end of the week 
> 
> kudos and/or comments let me know what you think
> 
> [or come shout at me on tumblr](https://hailing-stars.tumblr.com)


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